Over the years, harmful impacts on the environment have led to a growing awareness of managing the environment. This trend to protect the environment has grown both locally and internationally. The increased pressure from the public, private and government structures have resulted in companies taking more responsibility for the environment. One of the major environmental areas is the management of energy. The poor planning by the South African government has resulted in serious shortage of energy (electricity) to consumers. In 2008 and 2009, Eskom could not meet the demands for electricity, resulting in load shedding across South Africa. The short-term solution was to embark on managing energy usage through promoting lower consumption and through the efficient and sustainable usage of energy. Eskom had to serve as the leaders in managing the energy usage. This took the form of developing and implementing energy management programmes, including programmes for Eskom employees. The literature research reviewed local and international approaches to Environmental and Energy Management programmes within organisations. A survey and quantitative analysis was undertaken to determine the perceptions of Energy Management Programmes by employees based at Eskom, New Germany. The population at Eskom New Germany consists of 758 employees. In total, 84 responses were received and analysed. The findings of the study indicated that the majority of respondents were aware of Eskom’s overall environmental and energy management programmes. The majority of respondents positively rated these programmes in terms of their incentives, motivation, effectiveness, support structures and communication channels. Regarding the overall energy management programmes implemented at Eskom, New Germany, the majority of the respondents were aware of them and were of the view that these programmes were very effective. One programme had a poor participation level mainly due to lack of awareness, but the respondents who did participate indicated that the programme was valuable in terms of its effectiveness. The main recommendation was to combine all the energy management programmes into one portfolio, driven by one department. This Department will be responsible for the developing, implementing and sustaining current and future energy management programmes for employees within Eskom. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Since 1979, China embarked on an economic reform to modernize the country. The reform was so successful that China was able to grow by an impressive rate of 9 percent per anum between 1979 and 1997. The rapid development of the economy leads to a drastic increase in demand for energy. Since China has the largest population in the world, its energy demand is nothing but huge. Each year, for example, China needs to install as much as 10,000 MW of new electricity generation capacity, which equals the curent capacity of Netherlands. This increase in demand for energy, which is likely to continue, wil have implications for global energy markets, the world price of energy and for the global environment as emissions of greenhouse gases grow rapidly. Against this background, there is an urgent need for the country to better manage the energy sector so that the market can function in an orderly manner. To tackle this issue, I single out three important energy problems to study. First, I wil examine the current situation of the energy imbalance in China. Second, I wil forecast how rapid the energy demand wil grow in future so that the deficit between the demand and domestic supply can be identified. Lastly, I wil discuss some methods that can be used to manage the demand. My finding shows that energy-capital and energy-material inputs are complementary, whereas the relationship of energy and labour is insignificant. In addition, the simulation exercises also reveals that a high energy pricing policy might not be effective in mitigating the demand and in encouraging firms to employ labour intensive techniques. Also, rising energy prices may bring spiral inflation and deterioration in the balance of payments and foreign resources. Therefore, government should act cautiously when increasing energy prices.

In this paper we investigate whether power structures in organizations have an influence in the process that leads to burnout. We analyze if these power structures affect the individual’s health condition toward burnout in a way that leads to disability and subsequent absence from work. In the study, six persons who all have been unable to work due to burnout have been studied through qualitative, semi-structured interviews. The material have been coded with three different themes; leadership and hierarchy, responsibility and delegation of responsibility and performance and loyalty. These themes have been analyzed with Walter Korpi’s (1985) theory of power and power resources and Johan Asplund’s (2004) theory of social responsivity. Both theories may be associated with power structures in organizations. The result shows that organizational power structures do affect the process towards burnout in such a way that the ability of the individual to activate power resources to influence its situation is diminished and that the individual eventually loses his/her ability altogether. Further, we reached the conclusion that one of the basic factors that lead to burnout is the lack of power resources in the individual’s work situation. / I denna studie undersöker vi om maktstrukturer i organisationer har en inverkan i utbrändhetsprocessen som leder till utbrändhet. Syftet är att undersöka om maktstrukturer inom organisationer påverkar individens utbrändhetsprocess på så sätt att det leder till sjukskrivning. I studien har sex personer, som alla varit sjukskrivna för utbrändhet, intervjuats genom kvalitativa, semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Intervjumaterialet har kodats med hjälp av tre olika teman; ledarskap och hierarki, ansvar och ansvarsfördelning och prestation och lojalitet och sedan analyserats utifrån Walter Korpis (1985) teori om makt och maktresurser samt Johan Asplunds (2004) teori om social responsivitet. Båda teorierna kan kopplas till maktstrukturer i organisationer. Resultatet visar på att maktstrukturer i organisationer påverkar utbrändhetsprocessen hos individen på så sätt att förmågan att påverka sin situation försvagas och att individen till slut mister förmågan helt. Vidare kom vi fram till att en av de grundläggande faktorerna som leder till utbrändhet är bristen av maktresurser som individen innehar i sin arbetssituation.

Nanotechnology and nanoscience are experiencing rapid development in the last decade. Intensive research has been carried out on nanostructures synthesis and nanodevices fabrication. Due to its small size, a nanodevice usually requires an extremely small power to operate. However, to make the novel nanodevice work, an external power source is normally needed, which can either be a battery or a power source, thus, the size of the battery is usually much larger than that of the device and its life time is limited. It is highly desired to have a nanoscale size power source that harvests its energy from the environment so that it works independently and wirelessly to provide power to the nanodevices. This dissertation provides a solid solution to this dilemma based on nanotechnology. Starting from the synthesis of well aligned ZnO nanowire arrays on different substrates, an innovative method is presented first to measure the mechanical property of the as-synthesized ZnO nanowire arrays by using AFM without destroying and manipulating the sample. This technique is then extended to converte mechanical energy into electricity by scanning the nanowire arrays using a AFM tip in contact mode. Due to the unique semiconducting and piezoelectric dual properties of ZnO, mechanical energy is converted into electricity and is effectively output. This is the invention of the piezoelectric nanogenerator. Then, by replacing AFM tips using a zigzag top electrode, the first prototype direct-cirrent nanogenerator driven by ultrasonic wave has been fabricated. Further investigations have also been carried out about the effect of ZnO carrier density on the output power, and the power generating property of oligomer functionalized ZnO nanowires. This desertation established the fundamental mechanism for the nanogenerator, and it provides a new path towards self-powered nanosystems, which has key applications in in-vivo biosensing, MEMS, environmental mornitoring, defence technology and even personal electronics.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1984. / Bibliography: leaves 177-189. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / xiii, 189 leaves, bound ill

Bibliography: leaves 240-248 / xi, 248 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Faculty of Economics, 1988

Mémoire (M.Sc.At.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1981. / "Memoire presente en vue de l'obtention de la maitrise en sciences de l'atmosphere" CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermarizburg, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 376-388).

Ernst R. Berndt, David O. Wood. / July 1983. / Includes bibliographies.